The Sleuth's Apprentice

The Sleuth's Apprentice - Part 5 of 17

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The Sleuth's Apprentice - Part 5 of 17

Superboy, Superman, Batman and Robin are Copyrighted and owned by DC Comics.

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When Robin and Superboy had arrived at an apartment complex, they ran up the stairs and knocked on the first door, located next to the stairwell. An elderly man with a beard and a mustache opened the door.

'Mister Jacobs? My name is Robin, and this is my partner, Superboy. We came from Gotham City in order to ask some questions concerning the disappearance of your son, Jason'' Robin said, as he introduced himself and Superboy to the man who had opened the door for them.

'Yes, please come in, gentlemen'' the man said, as he held the door open for the two heroes.

The two boys sat down next to each other, facing the man.

'What happened last night, when Jason disappeared?' Robin asked the father.

'We had a fight. I found some alcohol in his room. Then came the cigarettes. And now' now''

The man had to pause, to wipe a tear from his eyes.

'I know this is hard on you, sir. But you must help us, so that we can get down to the bottom of this mystery, so that we can find out what has happened to your son, where he is right now, and then eventually how to get him back to you, safe and sound. I need to now everything you can tell us about his disappearance!' Robin Instructed.

'He was working at Johnny's as a bagboy' he started out earning only minimum wage. Then, he started coming home with more money than usual''

'When was this?'

'About a week after he started.'

'How do you know he started to earn more money?'

'He had set his wallet on the coffee table, on night, when he had come home very late from work. He went to bed late that night, and he left his wallet on the coffee table in the living room. I was astonished to see that he had over a thousand dollars in cash in his wallet! That is highly unusual for a kid who had just started working a part-time job at a grocery store and who was working there as a bagboy, don't you think?'

'Okay, so what happened next?' Robin continued.

'He came home wearing all kinds of jewelry.'

'Like what?'

'He had bought himself a very nice watch, to wear on his arm''

'Okay, so then what happened?'

'He came home smelling like alcohol''

'When was that?'

'The night after he started coming home with all this cash in his wallet'

'Had he gone to a bar? Did you ask him? Did he tell you anything?'

'All he said was that he had gone drinking with some of his coworkers from the grocery store, and he wasn't with anybody else''

'Have you seen or heard anything else from Jason that seemed strange or out of the ordinary?'

'He had mentioned something about having gone on a training mission to Arizona for his work' But he didn't go into any detail at all about it and he didn't answer when I asked him to explain about this trip in greater detail''

'What kind of training? How to work at a grocery store? That makes no sense to me'' Robin pondered.

'I'm not sure what the training was supposed to be for. But, one thing's for sure, that it has to do with something that is a lot bigger than just working as a bagboy at a little grocery store in a small town like Valery'' the father wondered.

'Alright, thank you, mister Jacobs' We'll let you know if we hear anything about the job or about your son'' Robin said, as he got up from the coach.

The boys shook hands with the man, before he opened the door and let the two super heroes out. As soon as they walked down the staircase, Robin pulled Superboy aside, as they stood next to his motorcycle.

'Why would the management of a grocery store send a bagboy off to receive training in Arizona? That sounds fishy to me''

'But, it seems like Jason had followed the same path as that other kid, named Michael, who was the son of the banker who got robbed in Carnaville.' Superboy pointed out.

'Good point, Supes'' Robin chuckled. 'So, you see, there are some similarities. Both boys had gotten jobs working at grocery stores, before they started acting funny. I wonder if there's a way we could find out what might have happened to them.'

'Yeah! Maybe I can get a job working as a bag boy in a grocery store'' Superboy laughed to himself.

Robin gasped, as he stared at him in astonishment.

'Hey! That idea really isn't as silly as it sounds, you know?'

'Huh? What are you talking about?'

'You could go undercover and become the next kid to be kidnapped by this weird gang, that is about to send you on a weird training mission in Arizona!'

'Okay! When do we start?'

'Let's get home first and find a few more clues, before we decide on our next move. But, I might have you go undercover, just to see where these guys ended up. Would you be willing to do that?'

'Sure!'

'Okay! To the Batcave!'

* * *

That evening, after Bruce, Jamie and Dick had enjoyed supper together; they went into the computer room, to look for some clues that could tie the different pieces of the puzzle together.

'Aha!' Robin cheered, as he searched through several files on the computer. 'Well, what do you know? Guess what! The grocery store where Jason worked, before he got kidnapped, is owned by a company called Willco.'

'Oh! That's the same company that owns the other store, where Michael disappeared from, right?'

'Yes! There is a connection between the two. The only difference is that one is in Carnaville, and the other is in Valery. Hmm' I wonder why this is happening in another city right now. The similarities are very close''

'Maybe we need to find more information about this company?'

'Yeah' well they have an office just outside of Valery. Maybe we ought to pay them a visit?'

'Sure! Do you want to go there tomorrow?'

'No! Let's go there tonight! I want to get through some files and see if we can figure out what makes this company so weird.

'Okay''

* * *

That evening, Robin and Superboy arrive at a sinister, small building, located near a strip mall, at the outskirts of the community of Valery. They walk around the back of the building, where they find the back door, which leads to the office.

Robin used a special bat-desensitizer to de-activate the internal alarm. As soon as he had placed the strange device over the alarm unit, the central alarm system went silent, and the three active lights had shut off. Robin was able to connect another bat-decoding device to the combination on the side door of the building, which had searched all possible combinations before it found the one secret key to unlocking the door to the office. As soon as the door was unlocked, the two heroes entered the building, and used a flashlight in order to guide them through the dark corridors of the deserted building.

When they entered the section where the offices where, Robin searched through several of the desk drawers located in the different cubicles that were there. He found several flyers containing information about buses, as well as lists of addresses of numerous gas stations across town.

'Why would a company, which owns a grocery store, be interested in owning a bus system and several gas stations? They have nothing in common!' Robin wondered.

'Well, they all use and sell gasoline, don't they?'

'Hmm' That's a good point. I don't see a clear connection between these different businesses, though' We need some more clues!'

Superboy walked over to another office, which was supposedly the office of the general office manager of that building.

He saw a small vault, which resembled a square, steel box, which was located in the far corner of the room. It had a combination lock on it, and it was locked with a fireproof door.

'There is a vault in the manager's office'' Superboy said to the Boy Wonder.

'Try to figure out, what's in the vault. Can you do that?'

'Sure!' Superboy cheered.

The Boy of Steel walked over to the vault, which was standing in the corner on the carpeted floor. He stared at the door for a moment, allowing his eyes to focus on the object, which lay on the floor in front of him. Within moments, the thick fireproof doors to the vault slowly began transparent in Superboy's eyes, revealing three shelves in the safe, containing papers and books.

'There are several documents located in the vault' Superboy said to Robin. 'Should I open the vault and remove them?'

'Yes! But, be very quiet!' Robin instructed.

'Okay''

Superboy placed his hand on the handle of the thick, front door to the small safe. Using his super strength, he pulled the door open, bending the thick, steel bars, which were supposed to hold the door closed and locked.

When Superboy began to pull harder, the five steel bars whined before they cracked apart, allowing the vault door to come open. Superboy slowly squatted down, and reached in with his hand, to remove the contents of the vault. Several people were kept inside of manila folders, and Robin quickly examined the papers.

'This Willco Company is into all kinds of businesses across town'' Robin discovered, while quickly scanning the papers. 'The company had recently purchased three grocery stores and three gas stations, located around the edges of town. None of them are centrally located, however''

'Why would they do that?' Superboy asked him.

'I'm not sure. I can bet, that the locations of all these stores have something to do with why the company was so interested in buying these stores'' Robin concluded. 'According to these books, none of the stores had gained much of a profit during the past two years. So, there must be some other reason, why this company had decided to buy them?'

Suddenly, Superboy looked up.

'Robin! I think somebody's coming this way! I hear something!' Superboy said to him. 'We need to get out of here!'

'One minute, Supes' one more minute''

Robin frantically shifted through some of the papers until his eye caught the name of the director of the company.

'Robin! We gotta get out of here!' Superboy warned him a second time. 'Two guys are about to enter the building through the front door!'

'Well I'll be darned! Guess who owns Willco?'

'Who?'

'A gentleman by the name of William Wancho''

Superboy gasped when he heard the name.

'Alright, Superboy' We're taking the papers with us. Just close the door to the vault, so that nobody would notice that we had broken into the place in case anybody drops in here tonight!' Robin instructed.

Superboy squatted down, besides the damaged vault, and he forced the thick, steel door closed, using his super strength.

Suddenly, his super senses were going crazy. Two men were walking down the hall, shining the hallway with the flashlights.

'Grab my hand!' Superboy ordered him. 'I can get us out of here in a flash!'

Robin grabbed Superboy's hand, and, in a split second, the two boys had raced out the back door. Superboy leaped in the air, and landed on the roof of the building, while Robin was still holding his hand.

Moments later, two men walked out the main office, locking the door behind them. Then, they got in the white van, which was parked out front.

'The alarm had somehow become deactivated' one of the men had mentioned to the other. 'Not only that, but the front door was unlocked. We'll do a thorough check of the place in the morning. At least, we were able to get the alarm back on again. Still, I wonder what could have caused the alarm to be de-activated like that.'

As the van drove away, the two boys breathed a sigh of relief.

'That was close!' Superboy sighed, as he looked down and stared at the empty parking lot. Robin had parked his bike a little farther down the road, in order to not attract any attention.

'I think we have enough information right now, that we can get an idea of what or who we're fighting right now'' Robin exclaimed. 'Now we have a name to go along with all these little companies, which have had disappearances during the past three weeks. I think, however, that we've only begun to scratch the surface of this operation.'

'Why?' Superboy wondered. 'What do you mean by that?'

'I think there is a lot more to Willco than just a bunch of gas stations and a few grocery stores, conveniently located near the outskirts of town. I think there is a big piece of the puzzle that we're still missing here''

'Oh, okay' so what do you want to do next?'

'Let's go home. It's been enough for one day. We'll sleep on it and determine our next course of action tomorrow, okay?' Robin instructed, while he stood straight and faced Superboy, while poking his finger on Superboy's chest as he spoke.

'Yeah!' the Boy of Steel cheered.

The two heroes flew and rode back to the Batcave. It was already early in the morning, and the boys were feeling tired. They had found out a lot of information in just one afternoon and one evening already. It was slowly becoming time to take the information, and to put things into practice.

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